


the body that stands apart from itself (remains standing)

by ivermectin



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Gender Identity, Meta, Nonbinary Warlock Dowling, Not sure if it comes thru in this but Adam and Warlock are best friends, They/Them Pronouns for the Them (Good Omens), everyone is nonbinary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24803440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin
Summary: Sometimes a family is a ragtag gang of teenagers in a small town who use the same gender neutral pronoun.Or, Warlock Dowling asks The Them about gender. Amongst other things.
Relationships: Brian & Pepper & Wensleydale & Adam Young (Good Omens), Warlock Dowling & Adam Young, Warlock Dowling & The Them (Good Omens)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	the body that stands apart from itself (remains standing)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facingthenorthwind (spacegandalf)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacegandalf/gifts).



> According to [this essay](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-body-of-the-poem-on-transgender-poetry/) that I only skimmed but am bookmarking to read later , Jay Wright says that a poem creates a “body that stands apart from itself”. I found that metaphor (of a body that is, essentially, disembodied) very beautiful, and decided to put my nonbinary hands all over it.
> 
> Are my tenses all over the place? yes. Do I care enough to fix this? no.

Later, if asked, nobody would be able to suss who started it out. Maybe it was Adam, who'd never really thought of themself as a boy, or maybe it was Pepper, who, after reading ten Famous Five books in quick succession, started a tumblr blog titled "GEORGE KIRRIN IS A TRANS BOY", or maybe it was Wensley, who, when someone called them Jeremy flinched and said, "Actually, it's just _Wensley_ , really...." or maybe it was Brian, who spent their allowance buying "FUCK THE CISTEM" badges from Etsy for the gang, and didn't think twice before buying one for themself, like they'd always known. Maybe it was Warlock Dowling, with their glossy hair and tired eyes, who, when visiting Tadfield for the second time in their life, asked Adam if the reason their gang called themselves "The Them" was because of their pronouns.

"Nah," Adam had said, their eyes sparkling with mischief. "We're the Them because everyone keeps talking about us as a singular but also as a group. We're a plurality that's perceived as a singular form. Which is different from singular they as a gender pronoun. Do you understand what I'm saying? We're a democracy." 

Warlock had sighed. "Not sure I _do_ know, actually, but whatever." 

Warlock wasn't really a part of the Them, but they'd used singular they for as long as any of them, if not longer. The first time they'd heard of the pronoun they'd known that if they were destined to smash everything under the heel of their boots, this was one thing that could stay - that could belong to them. It was a mixture of gender related anarchy and the warm feeling of belonging. Warlock wasn't sure how to put it better than that, but with the Them, they didn't need to.

Pepper had nodded, their hair swaying in the dreads they'd gotten done for their fifteenth birthday. 

"It doesn't have to make sense," they'd told Warlock. "Societal perceptions of gender are all _bonkers_ , anyway. Cisnormativity, various subsets of radical feminism, racist erasures of Indigenous and various cultural gender identities, the rigidity of the binary, white feminism, and hundreds of other issues exist that I am not qualified to talk about, but when you try and understand gender wholistically, you're working with infinite different things, really." 

Pepper was an activist. Warlock understood that to mean that they were always ten steps ahead of everyone else. 

Wensley, with their accountancy and their unfortunate reputation of being the sort of person who would eat the pages straight out of textbooks to acquire knowledge, had certainly benefited from time around Pepper. 

When Warlock asked them about gender, Wensley said, "Most people think of gender as having merely two axes - male and female. They're trying to plot it on an X-axis and a Y-axis. Actually, it's more like those advanced calc graphs, and the 3D ones. A lot of us are on the Z-axis."

"Is that a chromosome pun," Warlock had asked, amused.

Wensley had blinked at them owlishly. "Actually, chromosomes themselves aren't obvious, that's a common misconception," they'd said.

"I know," Warlock had said, unnerved. "Crowley and Aziraphale told me about all of that. Ineffability and intersex rights and whatnot." 

"Pepper has pamphlets, if you want to read them," Wensley said.

Warlock nodded.

When asking Brain about their pronouns, Brian had merely shrugged.

"Pronouns don't bother me," they'd said. "I've tried he and she too, and everything fits, if I'm being honest, but I like they best. It has a certain neutrality to it." 

"Indeed," Warlock had said. "I can't imagine using anything else. Neopronouns are cool, of course, but they's it for me." 

Brain had regarded them seriously, and then nodded. "Well," they'd said. "Can I tell you a secret?" 

Warlock had pushed their hair out of their eyes, nodded back. 

"Gender for me is overrated," Brian had said. "Like, to me, it doesn't really mean anything, you know? We've all heard Pepper, and they're right that there's so much to it, but when I introspect, I only ever come up empty. Pretty sure I don't have a gender." 

Warlock nodded, wondering if Brian had picked up the word 'introspect' from Pepper.

"I understand that," they'd said. 

Later, spending the night at Adam's, in the middle of playing video games, Warlock had said, "I like your gang."

"They're not my gang," Adam had said. "They belong to themselves."

"Pepper teach you that?" 

Adam had smiled, almost bashful.

After the video games, during sleepover hours, lying next to each other on Adam's bed, Warlock had said, "I've been talking to the others about gender, you know."

Adam had nodded.

"I don't think we've had this conversation yet," Warlock murmured.

"Nah, but you know Crow and Azi," Adam had said, waving an hand flippantly. "Gender, to them, however much they've adapted to it, is an alien concept."

Warlock nodded. They knew that for both Crowley and Aziraphale, gender was more of a performance (or a lack thereof) than anything else.

"It's sort of the same for me," Adam murmured. "I'm not human, after all, and gender is a human concept." 

Warlock turned around idly, put one of their hands on Adam's cheek. "Do you really believe you're not human?"

"Yeah," Adam said, and then, "No. Well. Maybe. Sometimes." 

"Maybe you weren't _born_ human," Warlock said softly. "But you chose to become one, and that's the bit that matters."

Adam had nodded, and shifted, pressing their face against Warlock's shoulder. 

They'd fallen asleep like that.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't even _know_ I had a fic like this inside me so, if you liked it, you should probably thank Emma, really.
> 
> @ emma hello ily how did i do?


End file.
